"Are you all members of a Wall Street club? Do you all play golf together?"

A telling little exchange at today's bad-tempered Congressional hearing into the government's bail-out of AIG, as the former treasury secretary Henry Paulson gave evidence to deeply sceptical lawmakers.

Congressman Elijah Cummings (D, Maryland): "Do you realise a lot of American people believe there's a kind of Wall Street club, that you all play golf together and that when the big ones come along, you distribute them among yourselves?"

Paulson: "I sure do. Even though I'm not a golfer, I sure do."

And a few minutes later, nice try by Cliff Stearns, a Republican from Florida, who provocatively asked Paulson whether he thought that without a bail-out of AIG, the US would have "collapsed" and that "our constitution would not have been enforceable and we would have had a revolution in this country".

"I've never said that," replied Paulson. "But I believe we would have had an absolute economic disaster."